A USED-CAR salesman says his business is being bombarded with faxes - containing confidential medical information.

Medical test results, including sensitive data on HIV and cancer sufferers, all found their way to the fax machine at a family-run garage in Haverfordwest.

David Hayes, of Thornhurst Car Sales, contacted the police after repeated attempts to stem the flow of confidential information, intended for a nearby surgery, failed.

"We were getting disgusted with it," said his son David yesterday. "We didn't want to know about things like HIV test results, which kept coming in.

"One contained personal details about a woman suffering from cancer who required treatment, and we found it out before she did. It's not on.

"It's a serious breach of medical confidentiality. When you go to the doctor, as far as you're concerned, any information stays between you and the doctor.

"It's a good job it came to someone like us. We just ripped it up and put it in the bin."

The confidential faxes began appearing last April, shortly after BT issued Mr Hayes with the fax number previously used by nearby St Thomas's Surgery.

The family firm had set up in the Merlins Bridge area of the town in February.

At first the information which came into their office was confined to results of eye tests. But gradually more and more sensitive information found its way to the garage shop floor.

Before ripping up the faxes, Mr Hayes and his two sons rang the numbers from which they had come, to say that they had sent the information to the wrong number - but the faxes kept on coming at the rate of around three a week.

Mr Hayes also contacted the surgery itself. In desperation, he recently went to see the police, who came and took some of the faxes away.

A spokeswoman for the surgery said yesterday that as far as it was aware, the situation had been resolved some time ago.

"When we changed our original fax number in 2000, everyone was informed," she said. "The hospital involved was told of the change in the fax number, and sent a memo around the hospital.

"We get lots and lots of faxes from the hospital but for some reason there seem to be one or two that have slipped through the net."

A spokesman for BT said the number had been registered to the Pembrokeshire Health Authority until January 2000.

"That's a long time ago. As a rule of thumb, we would not register a number for a minimum of 12 months after a change to give people time to forget the old number and get used to the new one.

"We feel we've acted properly but we are quite happy to talk to Mr Hayes about his fax number and what he would like to do about it to try and resolve the situation."

A spokeswoman for Dyfed Powys Police said it has been contacted by Mr Hayes, but it was not a police matter.

"We did, however, phone the two companies who sent him faxes out of courtesy to him."